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22 February 2019

Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 sources worldwide. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.

ADM 2012: The 1st quarter report

We're three months into 2012: it's time for our regular first look back at the most critically-acclaimed music so far this year

A reclusive dubstep producer, a bunch of hardcore punks, a
little-known DJ, an avant-garde sound artist, an experimental doom
drone band, a 71-year-old blues veteran ... and so on. Has there
ever been a more eclectic line-up constituting our regular
check-ups on what's attracting critical acclaim and how the year's
musical output is shaping up? We rather doubt it.

Arguably only one artist could have been regarded as a shoo-in
to figure in the upper reaches of the critical ratings from the
first three months of 2012: Leonard Cohen, whose first studio album
in eight years was always going to be met with rapturous
proclamations of genius.

Of course there are plenty of big-name releases yet to come in
2012, but thus far the heavyweights and mainstream certs such as
Weller, Springsteen, The Shins etc are being outshone by names from
the outer reaches of contemporary music's spectrum.

Why so? Possibly because expectations are that much higher when
you have a pedigree such as that of Weller and co; possibly also
because music reviewers are always keen to praise artists who seem
to trying to forge something new. Either seems a healthy situation
to us.

The notable success from the first quarter is of course Burial's
Kindred, which currently sits at No.10 in our all-time chart. It's
a controversial inclusion in that it's a three-track "short-form"
release, but as has been pointed out by our users, at 30 mins 30
secs it's only a couple of minutes short of the running time of The
Strokes' Room On Fire or Sleigh Bells' Treats. Furthermore it's not
simply a stopgap EP release between albums: Will Bevan hasn't put
out a long-player since 2007's Untrue. It's just a convenient
format for someone who otherwise busies himself with collaborations
and remixes.

You could argue that the appearance in the top 10 of Anais
Mitchell is no great surprise given that her previous album tops
our all-time chart. And yet Hadestown, for all the rave reviews on
its release, was comprehensively ignored by critics when it came to
the Best Albums of 2010 reckoning, so there was no certainty about
the reception for Young Man In America.

Elsewhere, we'd be very surprised if there's another hardcore
punk release in 2012 that receives as widespread acclaim as that
afforded to The Men's Open Your Heart, while the presence of Sharon
Van Etten's 3rd album alongside that of Anais Mitchell is further
evidence of the high regard in which indie folk artists are held
among critics.

So that's how it looks after the first quarter; if, nine months
on, the list of 2012's most acclaimed albums encompasses as
thrillingly wide a range of talents, we'll be quite happy.

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8.4

Burial

Kindred

Does what all great art should do: create a landscape that
wasn't there before, a landscape that invites so much to explore
that it is an exploration onto itself.